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Aloysius Knight
Aloysius Knight, also known as the Black Knight, is a former U.S. Delta operative-turned-bounty hunter, who works alongside his best friend Rufus. History Early History Some time after turning 18, Aloysius Knight joined the U.S. Delta Force. Because he excelled at Knight was often allowed to perform solo missions for Delta. He soon became the only friend of Rufus, a socially awkward pilot that Knight had worked with many times, after Knight defended him from his main tormentor. At some point during his career, Knight became married and had an infant daughter. In 1997, while staking out an Al-Qaeda base, he called for backup due to Osama Bin Laden's presence, but the squadron, led by Wade Brandeis, turned on him under orders from the Intelligence Convergence Group. Knight and Rufus avoided being killed, killing nine men before Brandeis blew up the lighthouse they were in, and hid in a storm cellar as it collapsed, also killing the four Delta men that were inside. Knight and Rufus eventually managed to get free after digging away the rubble above them. After the ICG discovered they were still alive, they laid false claims that Knight had being accepting money from Al-Qaeda, resulting in Knight being placed on the Department of Defense's Most Wanted list. Worse still, the ICG had Knight's wife and child killed; their deaths staged like a break-in gone wrong. With nothing left to go back to, Knight went underground and became a bounty hunter known as the Black Knight, and vowed to get revenge on Brandeis. A report claimed that when Knight was living in Brasilia, six Navy SEALs were sent in to liquidate him, but he killed them all and sent their heads back to the SEAL training facility. However, this could potentially have been a ruse created by the ICG, or else they used their own men and exaggerated the story. In one of his early ventures as a bounty hunter, Knight was hired to rescue the daughter of a Russian Deputy President from Islamic hostage takers without the media knowing. He did so with ease, and was rewarded with a Sukhoi S-37 called the Black Raven, as well as refueling privileges at any Russian base. In October 2003, Knight was contracted by the richest woman in the world, Lillian Mattencourt, to protect the U.S. Marine Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield, who was listed among fifteen people in a bounty hunt. With an offer to pay them US$130.2 million, the equivalent of seven heads in the bounty hunt, Mattencourt wished for Knight to assist Schofield in completing the tasks the bounty was intended to stop him from doing until midday on the 26th of October, or until the reason for Schofield's elimination had been thwarted. Scarecrow Knight and Rufus tracked Schofield to the abandoned Soviet Krask-8 facility in Siberia, and shot down a torpedo about to strike the silo. Finding that Krask-8 had been the site of af ambush orchestrated by Executive Solutions, Knight quickly assessed the area, noting the variously destroyed objects that indicated that Schofield had been present, and determined the Marine had managed to escape. Before departing, Knight ruthlessly killed a wounded ExSol man who was pleading for help. The bounty hunter then managed to track Schofield to a terrorist mine in Afghanistan, and had Rufus drop him and a pair of automated turrets down an air shaft, just in time to save Schofield and his team from Major Zamanov and the Skorpions. Knight introduced himself to Schofield and, having noted that a bomb was due to strike the mine, suggested they evacuate. Zamanov threatened to kill Knight for taking his bounty, even at the risk of the turrets, however Knight called Zamanov's bluff and, with the Marines, made an escape back to the surface while fighting off the pursuing Skorpions. They were then picked up by Rufus and the Black Raven, and the group relocated to a different part of the mountains. Knight proceeded to explain how he was being paid to keep Schofield alive, refusing to name his client, and that Schofield was free to operate to prevent whatever the bounty hunt was meant to stop him doing. Unable to provide much info on the hunt itself, other than that the heads were to be assessed at a castle in France, Knight informed Schofield how his girlfriend, Elizabeth Gant, had been captured by Demon Larkham and his IG-88 men, so that they could lure him into a trap. With what information one of Schofield's friend in the DIA had, Schofield hatched a plan to send Mother and Book II to London to speak with a Mossad agent, while Schofield wanted Knight to help him rescue Gant. The pair managed to board a tanker plane set to refuel the one IG-88's delivery team was using to reach France, and Knight offered the Marine some of his gear, and agreed (somewhat dissapointedly) to not hurt the crew of the tanker when they made their move. As IG-88's Hercules began refueling, Schofield and Knight use the fueling hose to slide down to the Hercules' cockpit, where they opened fire on the pilots and then engaged the bounty hunting group in hand-to-hand combat after Knight set off a chaff grenade. Knight fought against Cowboy, who ordered Rocko to break Knight's specialised glasses, temporarily taking him out of the fight and hand-cuffing him to a Humvee. Luckily Schofield was able to distract the pair and free Knight, who donned his back-up glasses and locked Cowboy in his own handcuffs, commending him for remembering Knight's weakness, before sending the two IG-88 men out the cargo ramp to their deaths. By using the three heads procured by IG-88 in Afghanistan, and disguising Schofield and Gant so that they would not be recognised, Knight led the trio into the Forteresse de Valois so they could use his palm-pilot to siphon data from any computers, in the hopes that they would get some new leads. After greeting the bounty assessor, Monsieur Delacroix, Knight left the two Marines to wait while he claimed the bounties from Delecroix. As his palm-pilot siphoned data from Delacroix's computer, Knight was suddenly alerted by the sounds of gunfire, and seeing Schofield and Gant gone, rushed off to find them. With the two Marines fleeing the castle from ExSol in the owner's cars, Knight followed in a black Lamborghini, helping to fight off the various enemies as they joined the chase. After Schofield was forced to ditch his truck, however, Knight was left with the injured Gant, and they were soon forced to stop, and were captured. While being transported back to the Forteresse de Valois, Book II contacted the team over their comms and informed them of the billionaire's club Majestic-12 and their plan to start a new Cold War using disguised supertankers to fire cloned terrorist missiles. After he was chained to the wall in the castle's shark pit, Knight refused to answer Jonathon Killian's question about who had employed him. When Killian ordered Cal Noonan to execute Gant on the guillotine, the Marine asked Knight to pass on to Schofield that she would have told him yes. Though horrified by Gant's beheading, Knight was able to use a gob of bloodied spit to draw in a tiger shark as Drake prepared to execute him, causing the ExSol mercenary to move into Knight's reach. Holding Drake in a lock, Knight reclaimed him blowtorch and fired it through the mercenary before grabbing his mountaineering pitons and freeing himself, before swimming out of the shark pit into the open ocean. Upon being picked up by Rufus and Mother, Knight directed them to pick up Schofield from his captives on the Richelieu. While Mother grabbed Schofield, Knight and Rufus used the Black Raven to attack the aircraft carrier and draw the enemy fire before Schofield and Mother managed to get back onboard. After Schofield directed ufus to head to the first Kormoran ship in the English Channel, he noticed Gant's absence, and so Knight sadly informed him of her fate. Schofield proceeded to try and take his own life, and as Schofield and Mother fought each other, Rufus made to intervene, however Knight stopped him, saying it was for them to sort out. Once Schofield was back on track, Knight, Schofield and Mother boarded the Talbot so that Schofield could disarm the missile, only to come under attack from the Skorpions and IG-88. Once Rufus rammed the ship with a freighter to keep the missile from firing, Knight and Schofield attempted to evacuate on a mini-sub, however Zamanov locked Knight out. Using a second mini-sub, Knight was able to following Schofield's sinking craft and fired the Marine's maghook, giving Schofield a lifeline back to his sub. However, Schofield had discovered that Killian had arranged an additional Chameleon missile set to hit Mecca, so the trio picked up a pair of X-15s to get them to the launch silo in time. En-route, however, Knight's pilot was shot by a stray tracer bullet, and Knight struggles to keep his plane under control. By the time he managed to catch up to Rufus and Schofield, Knight flew his X-15 it into the path of another missile about to hit them, ejecting at the last moment. Knocked unconscious by the extreme g-forces, Knight was picked up by Brandeis and his team to be taken back to Killian's castle. Chained up in the shark pit once again, Killian ordered Knight and the others executed. This time, however, Mother arrived to rescue them, and as they fought back against their attackers, Knight finally got his revenge on Brandeis by moving him into the path of an attacking shark. With Killian escaping, Knight briefly considered that his contract with Mattencourt had been fulfilled, however, having been inspired by Schofield throughout the day, agreed to help him pursue the anarchy-loving billionaire. Knight became trapped in a microwave emitter antechamber, but the bounty hunter's bull-stopper bullets managed to take out the emitters. He then confronted Delecrois in hand to hand combat, killing the Swiss man by firing his blowtorch through his head. Arriving at Killian's office in time to see Schofield throw himself out with Killian, Knight uses his Maghook to halt Schofield's fall and hoist him back up A few weeks after M-12's plans were foiled, Knight and Rufus met with Mattencourt in Majorca, Spain, to finalise their payment details. However, after they were done and Mattencourt was getting into her car, Knight spotted the Demon nearby. Once Mattencourt was killed, the head of IG-88 confronted Knight, noting this had been revenge for taking his collected heads earlier. With Mattencourt having died before she could pay them, Demon told Knight that he considered the matter settled. Some time later, Knight sent a card to Schofield, telling him that the Marine has earned Knight's trust - noting that Schofield impressed him so much that he went beyond the terms of his contract, given that he saved Schofield during his attempt to kill Killian even though the terms of the original contract had expired - and will be there if he is asked for help. Between Scarecrow and The Three Secret Cities A few years before 2016, Knight received word about a bounty hunt to capture a Swiss banker who had been embezzling money from a European royal family. The bounty hunter managed to spray the target with his MicroDots, however the banker was instead snatched up by another group unknown to Knight, whom he later discovered were called the Knights of the Golden Eight. He tracked the banker to Aragon Castle in Italy before he was moved to a remote part of Algeria. After a quick survey of the mining crater from the Black Raven, Knight discovered that the banker was being held somewhere over a mile below the surface, and while he decided to abandon the hunt, he memorised the location. In 2015, Knight successfully executed a contract to capture a gun runner from Kabul, unknowingly disrupting the supply chain to Sunil "Sunny" Malik's organisation. The Three Secret Cities In November 2016, Schofield contacted Knight to request that he use his debt to him to find and aid Jack West Jr after seeing a televised confrontation between the Australian and the Knights of the Golden Eight in London (but having already intended to query him about the Knights). Recalling his previous encounter with the Knights and the prisoner that had been taken to Algeria, Knight and Rufus set off in the Black Raven for the remote prison. Patching into a Russian spy satellite, Knight surveyed the mine until he saw three figures (Zoe Kissane, Pooh Bear and Stretch) breaking into the mine, and decided to wait to see if they made it out with Jack. After hearing internal radio chatter that the group had been captured, Knight quickly parachuted down into the elevator shaft and breached the Erebus cavern. After setting off chaff grenades, he brought down the guards and injured Yago DeSaxe. Once Knight introduced himself to Jack and his friends, he explained his reason for aiding them and began helping free Jack and Hades from the stone around them. While he was annoyed that they wished to perform another breakout at Aragon castle, Knight agreed to help, and asked Hades if there were any Challenger 2 tanks in Malta similar to the ones the Knights used in London, and suggested that they pick one up on the way. Once they acquired the tank, Knight joined the team's assault on the Knight's base, arranging for the tank to be dropped down as a decoy, then donned a pair of Gull Wings and accompanied Jack in gliding down to the Knights' balcony. Upon landing, Knight fired an RPG, killing one of the Knights, and helped Jack bring down the attacking Squires. Once the Knights retreated, Pooh Bear chastised Knight for convincing him and Stretch to drop in within the tank, though Knight brushed his concern off. As the newly-freed Alby Calvin explained what had happened to Lily West, Knight took in the castle's cavern and decided that, with its former occupants gone, he would make Aragon Castle his new European base of operations, claiming it had an "evil-lair" feel to it. As Jack and his team intended to find the Three Secret Cities and overcome their defences in order to save the world from catastrophe, Knight opted to accompany Jack in his search for Poseidon's tomb. As they headed off in the Black Raven, Jack messaged Schofield to thank him for sending Knight his way, noting his colourful character, to which Schofield responded that sometimes you needed the biggest and baddest dog in the fight to win. While Knight was disinterested in Iolanthe's discovery of the coordinates to the Cities, he did show some knowledge about Medusa's ability to turn people to stone with her gaze. Upon locating the entrance to Poseidon's tomb near Santorini, Jack and Knight made their way inside, with Jack cautioning the bounty hunter about potential traps. Upon spotting the tomb, Jack and Knight moved towards it and spotted the Trident (which Knight initially mistook for a carving of the Weapon). As they were confronted by Sunny Malik and two of his men, the Pakistani gangster mused about Knight's apprehension of his associate, which the bounty hunter offered no apologies for. As the tomb's trap was set off, Knight shot one of Sunny's goons and grabbed the Mace, and he and Jack rushed to escape before they could be entombed in the solidifying liquid stone. Upon narrowly making it outside safely, an irked Knight threatened to kill Schofield for introducing him to Jack. With the Mace in hand, Knight and Jack started making their way to Atlas to empower the Weapon. As Jack considered the punishment for failing the trial, Knight suggested he consider the logical conclusion of all the sources of water being dried up, which helped Jack realise that this would happen if deposits of greystone powder were exposed to the world's oceans. Upon arriving at Atlas's watchtower, Knight and Jack disembarked the Black Raven to be met by Sphinx, who threatened Lily's life if they did not empower the Mace and return it to him. Donning scuba gear, Knight and Jack began making their way through the submerged tunnel leading into Atlas, soon getting caught between a number of Bronze Guardians. Knight attempted to fight back by firing his harpoon at one, but while it had no effect, Jack managed to figure out the Mace was the key to getting by the Guardians. After swimming up to the hourglass-shaped city, the pair proceeded to Atlas's vault where Jack claimed the blue gem to empower the Weapon. However, after Sphinx sent a submersible drone down to collect the Mace, the Trismagi cut off the air in Knight and Jack's scuba tanks, leaving them stuck far below the surface. Before the oxygen in their lungs expired, Knight and Jack were able to swim to a sunken cargo plan that had long been resting on Atlas's side, and found a source of air. Once they were breathing safely, the pair returned to the surface, only to receive word from Alby that Sphinx was planning to sacrifice Lily to complete the trial. Knight and Jack rushed to the Rock of Gibraltar concealing the Altar of the Cosmos, but arrived to find the bodies of several Kings of the Four Kingdoms, and the liquid stone-encased body of Lily. With nothing else they could do, Knight dragged the distraught Jack away and had Rufus pick them up. As the Black Raven carried them away, Knight contacted the other members of Jack's team to inform them of the horrible execution of Lily to fulfill the final ritual. Personality He has been described by some as being somewhat of a Shane Schofield gone wrong, possessing skills and reputation similar to Schofield while using his abilities independently. Having once had a warmer personality, the betrayal dealt to him by Brandeis and the ICG, coupled with the execution of his wife and daughter, broke Knight and left him a much more cold and impassive person. When on business, Knight would act pleasant, but the only person he was truly kind to for a long time was Rufus due to his loyalty. While Knight is more readily prepared to kill, he was complacent enough to heed Schofield's request to not kill the innocent members of a fueling plane, which somewhat suit Knight since he prefers not to harm innocents, though he showed no mercy upon finding an injured member of Ex-Sol, refusing to give the mercenary aid and instead execute him point blank. Trivia *He has a tattoo on his arm saying "Sleep with one eye open, Brandeis", which is similar to a slogan established after 9/11 saying "Sleep with one eye open, terrorists". *Like Schofield, Knight regularly wears specially tinted glasses due to occular damage, although in his case the glasses are amber-tinted anti-flash glasses due to an eye condition which makes his retinas too sensitive to natural light, rather than Schofield's being the result of torture. *The name 'Aloysius' comes from the name of the college Matthew Reilly attended: 'St Aloysius College,' from which he graduated in 1992. Category:U.S. Characters Category:U.S. Soldiers Category:Scarecrow Characters Category:Characters Category:Scarecrow Category:Protagonists Category:Bounty Hunters Category:The Three Secret Cities